I am the guy in yellow with the black Commando cap who appears to be stuffing his face in every picture!

Ha,ha "stuffing his face in every picture" - you're funny!!

What a great effort you put forward; the wetness and the cold would seem to be a killer combination but you dealt with it superbly. Congratulations on finishing under your goal 9 hr time. I am glad the 200m screw-up at the start did not wreak havoc on the overall time goal. The team effort no doubt worked in favor of achieving this goal - you guys supported each other very well.

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I was wondering if you can help me understand the greasing of your feet prior to the race? What do you use and how (thick) do you apply it? Does it prevent blistering or why do it? What are the benefits?

And what is the little pepperami that you ate that gave you a second wind?

I am not sure which part of the world you come from so the brand names are probably different. I use vaseline or petroleum jelly on my feet. I find that there are some distinct advantages of using it:

Stops rubbing on pressure points in your shoe

Creates a "waterproof" seal and stops my skin becoming over wet

Any mud or grit tends to congregate in the vaseline and stops further rub

I now only put it on the top of my feet, between my toes and on my toenails (the ones that are left that is). I found if I put it on the bottom of my feet it made them slip about too much and cause my toes to move into the toe box of my shoe. I know that a few people use all these various branded items but I am not made of money so go for cheap but effective approaches and vaseline is great. It is normally used for nappy/daiper rash on babies and if it was good enough for my babies arse, then it is good enough for my gnarled old feet.

As for the peperami, it was the fat and salt that really helped me, I had the tell tale signs of beginning to hit the wall and that sudden injection of all the "bad stuff" really picked me up, I also think the infusion of carb gels helped as well.

I am in the the US. Got a small tub of vaseline that I can use for the purpose next time it's relevant. Just ran a long run on very wet trails/partly flooded. When I took the wet socks off I noticed a callused area on the left foot had turned white - if I had continued to run it might have turned into a blister. Perhaps the vaseline would have prevented this. Also, you answered a question I had about slipping/sliding inside of the shoes. Not rubbing the soles of the feet with vaseline seems to be the answer. Thanks Jerry.